Comics Curmudgeon readers! Do you love this blog and yearn for a novel written by its creator? Well, good news: Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast is that novel! It's even about newspaper comic strips, partly. Check it out! It is Friday: the day of the week when I showcase the top comment that were posted on […]

Republicans seem to be proud of their ‘solution’ for abortion: they’ll just devolve everything to the states and local authorities, so they don’t have their callousness and brutality thrown into their faces on the national level anymore. As far as I’m concerned, this is the worst possible solution. It puts women under the thumb of […]

Today I’m teaching a perilous topic: the eclipse of Darwinism. There was a period of several decades where you could make an honest intellectual argument against evolution, roughly from the time it was first published (1860) to the development of population genetics (say, roughly 1920). All the arguments since then are fundamentally garbage, but before […]

The latest Stephanie Stirling video dropped a tantalizing mention. There exists something called a “woke content detector“, which is basically a small group of self-appointed censors who are busily telling everyone which video games are bad. Not particularly interesting, except that the criteria they use to decide which games are too woke are hilarious. They […]

I’m not a fan of phys.org — they summarize interesting articles, but it’s too often clear that their writers don’t have a particularly deep understanding of biology. I wonder sometimes if they’re just as bad with physics articles, and I just don’t notice because I’m not a physicist. Anyway, here’s a summary that raised my […]

The last time I was in Washington, we had cleaned out a lot of my parent’s old stuff, and I was leaving after having booked a real estate agent to sell off the property. There were boxes and bags of miscellaneous papers that were going to be thrown out or destroyed, and I scooped up […]

My experiences in grad school were mostly happy ones, and I credit that to the fact that I was lucky to work with good people. I entered the lab of Charles Kimmel, working on zebrafish neuroscience, and stumbled my way through several projects before Chuck suggested a new one: he recommended that I use a […]

Stroll with us down memory lane as we celebrate the pearl anniversary of pixel art creation’s primary progenitor, and some of the many artists and design languages it inspired.

The post For love of pixels appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.

Why did leading designers in 2000 look down their nose at the web? And are things any better today?

The post This Web of Ours, Revisited appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.

It was late winter when my sabbatical began, and it’s late spring as it comes to an end. Next week I return to my post after three months’ paid leave, courtesy of Automattic’s sabbatical benefit. Three months. A season. With full pay, and zero work responsibilities. In a job full of rewards, this is perhaps the greatest […]

The post The gift of a three-month sabbatical appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.

My Glamorous Life: late to the pubescence party.

The post Strange Beliefs of Childhood № 99 appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.

The government's fate will depend on whether it can make things better, says political editor Chris Mason.

The president-elect's positions on issues ranging from Ukraine to trade have implications for the UK.

Politicians say we're living in dangerous times, and Trump is a lot less willing than Biden to pay for Europe's defence.

The foreign secretary previously called Trump a "tyrant" and "xenophobic" when he was a backbench MP.

The proposals will now undergo further scrutiny in the Lords, where they are expected to face tough opposition.

Probability of operating an alarm clock

Sustainable aviation fuels work, but can they be made in sufficient quantity to replace fossil fuels?

Start-ups launch drinks that look and taste like coffee but they say are better for the environment.

About 1500 workers in Tamil Nadu state have been striking work for the past 11 days.

As Wimbledon scraps human line judges, sport insiders suggest how we can make games more exciting.

Falling launch costs have given African nations a chance to send their own satellites into orbit.

Greener software could make devices last longer and use less electricity.

NYC emergency officials have begun using drones for the first time as a weather warning system.

The expedition, funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, will attempt the world's first private spacewalk.

We speak to the CEO of charity fundraising company GoFundMe

Ofcom warns social media companies could face fines if they don’t comply with the new Online Safety Bill

It is available straight away to subscribers of Microsoft’s Game Pass service, a first for a game this big.

The revelation has sparked concern among some creators it may impact their reach on the platform.

On the campaign trail the president-elect pledged to make America "the crypto capital of the planet".

The BBC speaks to social media moderators, whose job it is to find and remove distressing and illegal content.

The once-popular general DNA-testing firm holds a trove of sensitive genetic data from its customers.

Its record price is making headlines - but that's just one part of the cryptocurrency's tumultuous story.

Jim’s collaborating with Plus5Armory to create live, steel sharp versions of the Swords. It’s still early days so I don’t have any more information than that. If you watch their Facebook or Instagram, you’ll see … Continue reading "Get Your Own Sword of the Cross!"

South Korean orphan Milton dreamed of making it to America, the land of his father. One day he seized his chance.

Research by two charities finds that only 1% of disability hate crimes results in a charge

Children are among those pleading for hours for digital gifts, as the company takes a cut of up to 70%.

Maids in Qatar often work long hours without a day off, despite changes to employment law.

See the Olympic building site through the eyes of a 2012 cynic

This week marks 15 years since BBC Online was born. At about the same time, the BBC's news website also went live. The number of people visiting the news site has grown enormously over the years, and here you can see how traffic has increased, spiking at key news events, and how the appearance of the site's front page has changed over the years too. Meanwhile, for the 15th anniversary, the BBC's Director of Future Media Ralph Rivera has blogged about the significance of BBC Online today and the continuing importance of innovation to the BBC.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website.

It is no secret that recent Arab uprisings have placed enormous burdens on the shoulders of BBC Arabic journalists responsible for reporting news from the region.

Covering the Arab world is not always an easy task - we need to mix sensible caution with a dose of courage in covering political issues that attract so many disputed views among Arabic-speaking audiences.

Our guiding principles are the BBC's values, its editorial guidelines, its ethical code, which are our reference points to maintain impartial, balanced and accurate reporting.

Across the Arab world - whether it's Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt or Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Iraq or the many other countries in the region - we know that audiences want access to objective and independent news, far removed from an agenda that favours one party, religion or sect against another. That is why audiences are turning to BBC Arabic.

Last year, our latest figures show that overall audiences to BBC Arabic have risen by more than 17% to a record high of 25.3 million adults weekly. That includes a big surge of 2.9 million in Saudi Arabia and 2.7 million in Egypt, where TV viewers in particular turned to the BBC to better understand the events happening in their own country. Our radio audiences are also holding up despite the reductions in transmission. Online is proving to be more of a challenge, but we are working hard to understand the needs of digital audiences and those for whom social media plays an increasingly important part in their lives.

In 2011, following the fall of the Mubarak leadership, we watched as ordinary Egyptians carried banners saying "Thank you, BBC!" But meeting the high expectation of audiences has a price and sometimes it's been a heavy one.

March 2011 brought a strong reminder of the risks that our staff face in covering the news - one of our reporters was arrested and tortured by Muammar Gaddafi's forces during the Libya uprising. In early 2012, our reporter in Yemen was beaten and received death threats from supporters of the outgoing president.

We are also challenged by those who disagree with our coverage. In countries such as Syria and Bahrain, BBC Arabic has been accused of bias.

The criticism comes from opposition and government alike. It may be a valid argument to say that getting criticism from both sides, in the case of Arab world certainly, is an indication of balanced coverage.

On Syria, for example, we had a series of documentaries looking at the civil war from a number of perspectives.

The first one, exploring what it's like to work for a Syrian television channel that's the mouthpiece of the government, was the butt of criticism and threats from Syrian opposition quarters. We followed it up with a programme charting a day in the lives of six Syrian women, five of whom were anti-government activists.

In our day-to-day news coverage, presenting a variety of voices from Syria is essential to us. And that is what distinguishes BBC Arabic from many media outlets in the Arab world which promote political views and agendas, and that is what we are determined to keep.

BBC Arabic marked its 75th anniversary in January. Arab politicians and ordinary people have expressed their appreciation of our track record of impartiality and trusted news. I am confident that the coming years will see further achievement on all our platforms - TV, radio and online.

The 400-page fantasy novel is accused of stereotyping Indigenous Australians.

The home video was filmed less than 13 months before Sara was found dead with multiple injuries.

The BBC has "agreed in principle a contract extension through to the 2026 World Cup," with Lineker.

Hundreds of head office workers are facing cuts and loss-making branches are under threat of closure.